The faint footsteps gently reverberated in the dark corridor.
Almost imperceptible.
Eerie and stealthy.
"There's a sound!"
Lu Fei and Jing Jian suddenly stopped and turned to look back sharply.
The narrow corridor seemed to have no end.
Behind them, there was nothing but emptiness.
"Be careful, I feel like something is coming out!"
Their eyes met,and they stood back to back in tacit understanding.
Lu Fei stared ahead, while Jing Jian watched the back.
The yin energy was silently flowing.
In the dimness, a strange shadow seemed to flit by.
"Hmm?" Jing Jian strained his eyes but still couldn't see clearly.
"Over here."
Lu Fei stopped in front of a door and motioned to Jing Jian.
Creak——
The graffiti-covered door was pushed open.
Xiao Hei pulled half of his head into the backpack, leaving only a pair of black eyes warily scanning the surroundings.
Lu Fei and Jing Jian stepped into the room one after the other.
The flashlight beam swept across the room.
Rows of small beds were neatly arranged.
This is the rest area.
The blankets on the beds bulged as if children were curled up inside sleeping.
Lu Fei cautiously lifted one of the blankets.
A musty smell wafted out, revealing nothing but a lifeless cartoon doll, its neck twisted to one side as if broken.
"The red-clothed doll might be on one of these beds."
Lu Fei quickly pulled back the covers on the other small beds, and under each cover was a broken doll.
Some dolls had their mouths stuffed with cotton, while others were riddled with wounds from knife stabs.
"Isn't this how those children in the kindergarten died?"
Lu Fei frowned, not knowing what all of this represented.
But right now, the most important thing was to find that pair of red-clothed dolls.
There was only one small bed left.
This bed's bedding was especially bulging, as if it were hiding more than one child.
But the more obvious it was, the more problematic it became.
Lu Fei felt that there must be a trap inside.
"Brother Jing, keep an eye on it." Holding the thunderstruck wood in one hand and channeling his magical power, he carefully lifted the blanket with the other.
However.
There were only two moldy pillows inside.
Ding dong!
A rusty blade fell out from the blanket.
The soft clatter as it hit the ground was particularly clear in the silent kindergarten.
Pitter-patter.
Pitter-patter.
Immediately after, hurried footsteps could be heard in the corridor outside, growing louder as they approached.
Waves of Yin energy surged in through the gap under the door.
"Something's coming!"
Lu Fei and Jing Jian exchanged a glance, each finding a place to hide.
Lu Fei pulled back the curtains and just managed to hide himself when the door to the lounge was forcefully pushed open with a bang.
A dense, eerie aura like black fog filled the room, with a vague figure appearing and disappearing within it.
After a half-second pause, the figure stepped into the lounge.
Old, black men's leather shoes tapped lightly on the dust-covered floor, making a soft pattering sound.
In the hand behind his back, he held an iron ruler that was covered in rust.
The ruler was longer than any Lu Fei had ever seen, dragging on the ground and producing an uncomfortable, grating noise.
The dark figure moved between the small beds, carefully examining the dolls on each one.
As it walked, it tilted its head, as if listening for something.
Lu Fei hid behind the curtain, holding his breath and observing the shadow with just the corner of his eye.
The little black dog even tucked its tail and hid inside the backpack.
The intensity of the dark aura from this shadow far exceeded that of the red-clothed dolls, and the iron ruler in its hand evoked the fear of being punished during school days.
Jing Jian hid under a table, watching the black leather shoes pace back and forth, not daring to breathe.
"Could this ghost be a kindergarten teacher?"
Lu Fei speculated in his mind.
The dangerous aura emanating from the teacher made him dare not make any rash moves.
The teacher checked around, seemingly finding nothing, and the old-fashioned leather shoes turned around, preparing to leave.
But.
At that moment, the pair of red-clothed dolls appeared again.
They sat on top of the wardrobe, hands clasped together. Their deformed little hands raised up, and on their dull little faces, a mischievous and sinister smile appeared.
In their hands was a glass marble.
"Oh no, they're up to no good!"
Lu Fei felt a sense of foreboding.
Suddenly, the dolls' little hands tightened, and two marbles flew out.
One landed at Lu Fei's feet, and one by Jing Jian's side.
Thud! Thud!
The two sharp sounds immediately caught the teacher's attention.
The teacher turned abruptly, picking up the iron ruler in his hand, and with a fierce and chilling aura, he quickly approached Lu Fei.
The dolls blinked their button eyes at Lu Fei, laughed mischievously, and then disappeared.
"Brat!"
Lu Fei cursed furiously.
He held the lightning-struck wood in his hand, with his magical power surging madly.
Jing Jian watched as the old-fashioned leather shoes quickly passed in front of him, and he quietly slipped out from under the table.
He raised the Seven Stars Magic Sword, aiming it at the teacher's head.
The figure of the teacher was already close, and amidst the thick shroud of阴气 (yin qi, which can be interpreted as 'dark aura' or 'negative energy'), Lu Fei saw the teacher's face.
The eyes were hollow, and the features blurred.
But the ears on both sides of the head were surprisingly large, standing high, as if no slightest sound could escape them.
"Could it be that the teacher can't see and relies on hearing?"
Lu Fei's gaze moved past the teacher, and he nodded in silent understanding with Jing Jian.
Before the long iron ruler came down, both of them acted at the same time.
Boom!
A flash of lightning and starlight zipped across the dim room, only to be submerged by a thick aura of yin, not even touching the teacher's body.
"What's going on?"
The two were greatly startled.
How did the power of the magic weapon weaken?!
In theory, with their combined efforts, even if they couldn't immediately subdue the ghost, they should have been able to severely weaken it; it had never happened before that the ghost remained completely unharmed.
Is it due to the influence of the environment here?
"Noisy children, you deserve a beating!"
The teacher roared with stern anger, raising the long ruler high and bringing it down with a whoosh.
In comparison, those rulers of the little ghost are like useless toys, with less than one-tenth of its power.
"Run!"
There was no time to think, Lu Fei hissed at Jing Jian and started running out from the other side of the curtain.
Jing Jian hurriedly followed.
"Running around during bedtime, bad child! You deserve a beating!"
A terrifying voice sounded behind them, no matter where they ran, the teacher could always catch up.
"That's a sound-tracking ghost, don't make a sound!"
Lu Fei pulled Jing Jian and took out a bottle of mineral water from his backpack, throwing it with force in the opposite direction.
Bang!
The water bottle hit the ground, and the terrifying teacher immediately chased after it with the long ruler.
"Over here!"
Lu Fei pointed at the classroom next door, and the two of them tiptoed in, crouching in the corner and wiping the cold sweat from their foreheads.
No wonder Little Black was so scared; it turns out this kindergarten harbors such a terrifying big ghost.
The sound of leather shoes tapping the ground lingered outside, with the sharp sound of a ruler scraping the floor now near, now far.
So this is what the red-dressed doll meant by hide-and-seek!
"It deliberately lured us in, just to use the big ghost against us. What a terrible evil thing, it even knows how to kill with a borrowed knife!"
The two of them had not yet caught their breath.
The pair of red-dressed dolls appeared again.
They were sitting hand in hand on the podium, playing with two pieces of chalk in their thin fingers, grinning maliciously.